


like real people do

by theillyrianwolf



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, all genre tags are “maybe in the future” kinda things, au where root wears a fucking bulletproof vest, lots of emotions, will always have a happy ending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2020-01-23 20:06:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18556906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theillyrianwolf/pseuds/theillyrianwolf
Summary: They've both almost lost each other.  Now, they have to learn how to love each other through the wounds that Samaritan and the rest of the world have left on them.-basically a series of one-shots in the same universe[title from like real people do by hozier, an inspiration for this fic]





	1. that would be enough

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey i have no idea how long it would take to recover from like broken ribs from getting shot. let's just all pretend all medical facts i say in this fic are true and fine bc i don't know what i'm doing

Shaw’s in her new apartment picking through her meager belongings when she hears a knock at her door.  Her body tenses and she slips a gun into her hand before peeking through the peephole in the door. She lets out a breath when she sees a slender figure and messy brown hair, and she’s taken aback at the…  _ feeling  _ that grips her heart at the sight of Root safe and standing in front of her.  It had been a scarily close encounter, and Shaw can still see Root’s pale face as she laid unconscious on the stretcher, and it makes her heart clench again.  She spent every waking hour by Root’s side, watching her vitals and checking her ribs every chance she got, until a worried Harold ushered her back to the apartment he’d acquired for her.  Four weeks since Samaritan’s demise and Root’s finally able to walk and function fairly well. She opens the door slightly and watches as Root’s face breaks into a smirk.

“Hey, sweetie,” she says.

“No surprise entrance?”

Root shrugs her shoulder to show Shaw the blue sling her arm’s in. “Kinda hard to pick a lock with one hand.”

Shaw opens the door to let her in, saying, “I can do it.”

Root’s mouth opens to protest, closing it a second later, her eyes unfocusing.

Sameen waits as the Machine relays the information, walking back to the kitchen counter where she had been organizing her things.

“Impressive, Sameen.  Although I have been privy to the things you can do with one hand,”  Root says, winking.

“That would work a lot better if you could actually wink,”  Shaw says, glaring. She doesn’t admit that it kinda did work, actually, and she feels a heat warming her chest as flashes of Root’s fingers and lips fill her mind.  But as always, Root can see through her and she smiles her secret smile and Shaw knows that she’s been caught.

“I think it worked just fine,” Root says, advancing towards her and pressing Shaw into the counter behind her.

Shaw shoves her away, although there isn’t much force behind it.  “So, why are you here?”

Root pouts.  “What, can’t a girl just drop by for no reason anymore?”

Shaw hears something in her voice and turns to look at Root fully.  She’s fidgeting with the edge of her jacket and as much as she tries to look at Sameen with innocent eyes, Shaw can tell she’s nervous.

“Is something wrong?”  Shaw asks.

Root gives her a small smile.  “Didn’t know you cared, Shaw.”

A flash of annoyance flies through Shaw and before can she can stop herself she says, “You know I care.  As much as I can care.”

Root looks up and Shaw can see genuine surprise and something  _ else  _ in her eyes before she turns away again.  “Actually, that’s… kind of why I’m here.”

Shaw lets out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding.  “Root,” she says, with more softness in her voice than she’d intended, “what are you doing?”

Root still can’t look her in the eyes.  “You said maybe someday.”

Shaw can feel the tightness in her chest, the urge to run, the need to push Root away and not acknowledge what happened between them.  “That was said under duress.”

Root meets her eyes and Shaw knows that, yet again, Root understands she’s lying.  Shaw sighs and shoves her hands in her pockets. “Listen, Root. I… can’t.”

“Why not?”  Root’s voice sounds so small and Shaw can hear the hurt in it and it makes her heart clench.  She’s not made to deal with these things. And yet, for Root, she tries.

“I’m not built for… what you want.  What you need. I can’t give you what you need,”  Shaw says, running her hand through her hair. It’s the same excuses she’s always given, to the boy in 10th grade, to the girl from medical school, to Cole, but she feels her heart fall for the first time as she says them. 

Root’s voice hardens a bit and she looks Shaw directly in the face.  “How do you know what I need?”

“It- you- I know you need all that lovey dovey shit.  The love declarations and emotional stuff. I know you need a real relationship.  And… you deserve that. I just can’t give that to you.”

Root lets out a breath and says, “Shaw, listen, and I need you to actually hear me.  Have I ever tried to change you? Have I ever said that I wanted you to be something else?”  

She waits and Shaw shakes her head.

“I never said that I needed a traditional relationship.  All I said was that I need you. And that’s all I need. That’s all I’ve ever needed.  I know that you care about me, Shaw. I know that you’d protect me in whatever way I needed.  I know you’d travel to the ends of the earth to avenge me. You’ve already shown me so much more than I ever expected from you.  I’m serious, all I need, is you.”

Shaw closes her eyes and takes a breath, letting it out slowly as she wrestles with the  _ feelings  _ in her chest.  Fucking feelings.  They’d never been like this before Root.  Root came along and everything woke up. Or, not woke up, really.  The feelings were the same volume as always. Gen would say Shaw just started listening.  She found a reason to listen.

“That would be enough for you?”  Shaw finally asks.

“No.  It would be everything,”  Root answers, and Shaw lets herself listen, taking a fistful of Root’s shirt and pulling her down, crashing their lips together.  She feels Root smile against her, and Shaw’s heart unclenches. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please give me some feedback, and let me know if i should continue this and have them live out the rest of their lives post-samaritan?


	2. makeshift gauge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you all for the kind feedback, i really appreciate it! when i get a comment my heart gets so happy. 
> 
> chapter title from the song "i found" by amber run. also if anyone wants a playlist of songs that remind me of root and shaw, here's a link to a playlist i made. i hope you like it
> 
> https://open.spotify.com/user/april.isabelle427/playlist/6rFVT4lqfCwkpn4dWbV0QO?si=76QJnFAmQfKEVV9oovcFZw

She catches Root staring at her, sometimes.  She pretends not to notice. She doesn’t really know what to say about it, anyway.  Root’s eyes are so full of something Shaw can’t describe, something that strikes something in Shaw every time she meets Root’s gaze.  Shaw can’t understand it until she sees Root asleep one day, and something about how the moonlight from the window falls on her face reminds Shaw of the  _ paleness  _ and the shallow breath and suddenly she’s filled with an anger so deep it surprises her, an anger at no one and everyone at the same time, at Jeffrey Blackwell and Samaritan and the Machine and the whole world for trying to take Root away from her.  And there’s something else too, a kind of breathlessness that makes Shaw want to hold Root to her forever, so that she can never get away. And she realizes why Root keeps looking at her with those full eyes. It’s to make sure she can’t get away. To make sure she’s really still here.  

She knows something’s changed after their conversation the other week.  She finds herself wanting to reach out to Root, and she starts to let herself, laying a hand on Root’s back when she passes, slipping her hand into Root’s when they’re sitting in a diner booth on a mission, draping herself over Root’s side when Root forces her to watch the Avengers movies with her.  And she can sense a change in Root as well. There’s less surfacey flirting in their interactions, more earnestness in their teasing, more meaning behind it. When Root calls her love, or honey, or sweetie, she doesn’t do it just to annoy Shaw anymore, but there’s an attempt to communicate her love without saying it.  Or at least that’s what Shaw thinks she’s doing, and she starts rolling her eyes with a smile at the nicknames, which start getting more and more ridiculous as Root starts running out of original nicknames. Honeybear. Apple of my eye. Stud-muffin. Sugarlips. Star. Supernova. Neil Degrasse Tyson, once. 

They have a teenage number about three months after Samaritan’s demise.  Shaw’s sitting with her in one of their safehouses when Root enters, all smirks and dark eyes.  

“Hey, lovemeister,” she says, and the teenage number raises her eyebrows at Shaw, who rolls her eyes.

“What do you want?”  Shaw asks, ignoring both Root and the number’s gazes.

Root pouts and says, “That’s a terrible way to greet your girlfriend.”

The number’s eyes widen and she looks at Shaw incredulously.  “ _ You  _ have a girlfriend?”

Shaw scoffs.  “Hey, why couldn’t I have a girlfriend? I’m hot as fuck, right?”

“Yeah, but you’re… you.”

Shaw scowls as Root walks behind her and gives her a kiss on the head, saying, “I love her just like she is.”

Shaw glares at Root, and for good measure glares at the number too.

“What?  I didn’t mean it, like, in a bad way.  People are always surprised when I tell them I have a girlfriend, too.  They say I’m too blunt to have ever gotten a girlfriend. But I did, so, their loss, I guess.”

Shaw grunts in response, her mind caught on the fact that Root called herself Shaw’s girlfriend for the first time and Shaw hadn’t said anything about it.  The word sits in her chest, not uncomfortably. She mulls it over and turns it around in her head and decides she doesn’t hate it. 

After they finish with the teenage number, Root finds Shaw in the kitchen of her apartment.  

“So, we’re girlfriends now, huh?”  Root says from the doorway, her tone teasing but with an underlying hint of nervousness.

“Shut up,”  Shaw says, not looking up from chopping her carrots, “What else would we be?”

Shaw feels arms slip around her waist and she leans into the touch.  Root rests her chin on the top of Shaw’s head, and if it were anyone else, Shaw would have shot them on the spot, but for some reason with Root it feels okay.  It feels a bit like home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dumb nicknames taken from a joke list that i thought was funny, here's the link if you're interested  
> https://medium.com/@joeymckeown/50-names-to-call-your-significant-other-75cded08e07d


End file.
